If you’re looking for recent movies to stream, here are a few with local ties, either having been filmed here or featuring actors and directors from Massachusetts.
Banking on it: Pittsfield’s Elizabeth Banks is on a ‘Cocaine Bear’ high
Pittsfield native Elizabeth Banks directed this hysterical horror comedy about a coked-up bear running amok throughout Chattahoochee National Forest, attacking an oddball group of hikers, rangers, and AWOL teenagers. After her first taste, the 500-pound black bear takes to the sweet-smelling powder like Paddington to marmalade. A murderous rampage ensues. The film has grossed about $88 million worldwide since its Feb. 24 release and has helped to spawn a subgenre of drug-crazed animal attack flicks in “Crackoon,” due out later this year, and “Cocaine Shark,” available to stream on Tubi and on DVD July 11. Note that “Cocaine Bear” was one of the final projects for actor Ray Liotta before his death in the spring of 2022, and he steals every scene he’s in, playing the local drug kingpin.
Banks, best known for her roles in the “Pitch Perfect” and “The Hunger Games” franchises, also starred in last year’s underrated “Call Jane,” streaming on Hulu. She plays a 1960s housewife pregnant with her second child. However, the discovery of a congenital heart condition demands she get an abortion to survive. With no one to perform it, she’s forced to go underground and finds help in Call Jane, a group of women — none of them named Jane — who, for $600, promises a safe abortion.
Banks was the 2020 recipient of Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ Woman of the Year award.
Where to watch ‘Cocaine Bear’: Peacock
‘Jerry & Marge Go Large’ hits the jackpot in Massachusetts
The heartwarming comedy-drama “Jerry & Marge Go Large” is based on the true story of retirees Jerry (Bryan Cranston) and Marge Selbee (Annette Bening), a couple who used a loophole in the Massachusetts State Lottery to win $27 million. The Selbees were high school sweethearts and ran a convenience store in their small Michigan town. They used their winnings to revive their community, pay for their grandchildren’s education, and rekindle their romance. In addition to Cranston and Bening, the cast includes Larry Wilmore, Rainn Wilson, Anna Camp, Ann Harada, Jake McDorman, Michael McKean, and Uly Schlesinger.
Where to watch: Paramount+
‘80 For Brady’ is a charmer
It’s hard to root against the likes of Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin, and Rita Moreno, the four Oscar-winners who play Tom Brady superfans in the comedy ‘80 For Brady.’ Loosely based on a group of women from North Attleboro, the movie sends the tight-knit friends on a wild trip to 2017’s Super Bowl LI in Houston to see their hero play in the big game against the Falcons. New England rallied from a 28-3 halftime deficit to knock off Atlanta in the largest comeback in Super Bowl history. Add in a little Billy Porter, a big dance number, some Gronk fan fiction, and a return engagement to that amazing come-from-behind win, and well, you just might shed a tear of joy, too. Mercifully, comedian Alex Moffat and Weymouth native Rob Corddry (“Ballers”), co-starring as hosts of the radio show Patriots Nation, are the only two who take the Boston accent for a spin.
Where to watch: Paramount+
‘American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing’
Writer-director Floyd Russ tells the story of April 15, 2013, the day three people were killed and more than 260 were injured in the Boston Marathon attacks. An MIT police officer was shot and killed after an encounter with the bombers three days later. The ensuing five-day manhunt is the focus of the three-part documentary that unfolds like a pulse-pounding thriller, which, despite knowing how it turns out, is as tense and emotional as it was 10 years ago. Local law enforcement, working with the FBI, brought the killers to justice in 101 hours. Russ, known mostly for sports documentaries, mixes archival footage, reenactments, and interviews with Boston police brass Billy Evans and Ed Davis, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, EMT Janell Jimenez, Rick DesLauriers, the FBI’s special agent in charge and carjacking survivor and unlikely hero Danny Meng. Darkness choked the city, but when it mattered most, resilient Bostonians came together with compassion and resolve to take care of their own. The documentary is a must-watch for us.
Where to watch: Netflix
Norwood gets its closeup in rom-com ‘About Fate’
In this predictable but charming rom-com, Margot Hayes (Emma Roberts, “Maybe I Do”) and Griffin Reed (Thomas Mann, “Kong: Skull Island”) meet cute in a Bennigan’s parking lot minutes after she’s dumped and his proposal lands with a thud. Later, in a wild twist of events, fate sets them up for a second meet cute on a snowy New Year’s Eve. Comedy and chaos ensue. Marius Weisberg directs from a script written by Tiffany Paulsen. Norwood Town Common and the Norwood Theatre were all decked out in holiday lights and festive trees, garlands, and wreaths to provide the Christmas-themed backdrop for a romantic horse-and-buggy ride. Other scenes were shot in an apartment complex in Watertown, downtown Norwood, the Lenox Hotel, Copley Square, and other locations in Braintree, Brockton, Canton, Chelsea, Medford, Quincy, Randolph, Taunton, and Waltham.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Celtics great Bill Russell is the subject of a Netflix documentary
Director Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) helms an in-depth documentary on late Celtics legend Bill Russell’s life and legacy. The two-part film documentary features the last interview with Russell before his death on July 31, 2022, as well as commentary from Larry Bird, Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jayson Tatum and more. Russell won 11 championships during his 13 seasons with the Celtics. The documentary is narrated by actors Jeffrey Wright and Corey Stoll.
Where to watch: Netflix
See Norwell native Jennifer Coolidge in ‘We Have a Ghost’
Norwell’s Jennifer Coolidge, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for “The White Lotus,” continues her hot streak with the supernatural adventure comedy “We Have a Ghost,” which landed in No. 1 spot on Netflix after its February 24 debut and has since racked up more than 40 million hours viewed.
Coolidge, a Norwell High graduate, plays a red-headed psychic named Judy Romano in the movie, which is about a family that moves into a haunted house. Their ghost turns into an internet star as they try to solve the mystery surrounding its murder. Joining Coolidge in the cast are David Harbour (“Stranger Things”), Jahi Winston (“Proud Mary”), Anthony Mackie (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), and Tig Notaro (“Army of the Dead”).
Where to watch: Netflix
‘Boston Strangler’ is loaded with local stars
“Boston Strangler,” a true-crime drama about the two trailblazing South Shore female reporters who broke the story of the infamous serial killer, was the No. 1 thriller on Hulu in April. Written and directed by Watertown native Matt Ruskin (“Crown Heights”), the movie started filming in December 2021 at locations in Boston Braintree, Belmont, Roxbury, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, Lynn, Lowell, Wellesley and Malden. “Boston Strangler” centers on how the late Milton journalist Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley, “Pirates of the Caribbean”) and her fellow Boston Record American reporter, Scituate native Jean (Cole) Harris, challenged the sexism of the early 1960s in covering the story. They were the first reporters to connect the murders to one suspect, now known as the Boston Strangler. Despite derision and ridicule from investigators, the two worked tirelessly to pursue the story and keep women informed. Adding more local flavor in supporting roles are Kingston resident Chris Cooper, an Oscar-winner for “Adaptation,” as a hard-boiled newspaper editor and Boston native Alessandro Nivola plays a police detective.
Where to watch: Hulu
Catch ‘Air’
Cambridge BFFs Ben Affleck and Matt Damon star in ‘Air,’ the story of Nike’s courtship of superstar Michael Jordan and the birth of those iconic red-and-white hightops bearing his name. To date, the film has earned a worldwide total of $89.7 million. Damon, as Sonny Vaccaro, the creative force behind Air Jordan, and Viola Davis, playing Michael’s mom Deloris, are stirring up award-season buzz for their knockout performances. They’ve got my vote.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Boston Movie News 